Gen Ten
by Twilight Odin
Summary: After the death of Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia, Lloyd Asplund and Cecile Croomy have spent the past few years modifying, improving and perfecting the modern Knightmare Frame. The result of their work is the first Tenth Generation Knightmare Frame, Odin. In this story Gino helps Lloyd and Cecile conduct the Odin's first flight tests and run into a few difficulties...


Gen Ten

Earl Lloyd Asplund was more eccentric than usual after inviting the Knight of Three, Gino Weinberg, to his research laboratory.

"Isn't it just a wonderful day to be in the army?" He said to himself.

"Actually, our actions here could break the fragile peace that Lady Nunnally has worked so hard to keep." Cecile noted.

"What, you don't like what we're doing?" Lloyd asked with a smile. "You volunteered to help me, you know."

"No, it's just that I'm telling you that you'll be responsible for what happens next!" Cecile replied. Lloyd waved off her warning dismissively, and as he turned toward the door, his face lit up like a kid on his birthday.

"You wanted to see me?" Gino asked.

"Ah yes!" Lloyd yelled in delight. "Since we lost Suzaku, we need a new guinea pig to test all of our new technology!"

"Test subject? Technology?" Gino asked. "Thanks, but no thanks, I've got my Tristan already."

"Oh but I think you misunderstand me, Gino." Lloyd said with a devious smile. "The unit we have here is a Tenth Generation Knightmare Frame!"

"Tenth!" Gino said in disbelief. "I thought we were only on seven!"

"That's true, but the prototypes of the eighth and ninth models were so energy inefficient we decided to scrap their production and create a new, perfect unit." Cecile said. Gino was still shocked silent in disbelief. "I see we've caught your interest. If you want to fly this new unit, come this way." Despite the number of grants they got from Schneizel, Lloyd's lavish lifestyle always managed to reduce their working area to a small garage with tools scattered on the floor.

"Not to be rude or anything, but this place is a complete mess!" Gino said.

"Yes well buying the parts for the Odin basically bankrupted us." Lloyd said.

"The Odin?" Gino asked.

"Yes. Knight of Three, I am proud to present to you the first Tenth Generation Knightmare Frame, Odin." Cecile said proudly as she pulled the large cloth off of the unit. Gino couldn't believe his eyes.

"What!" He said. "That's a knightmare frame? I know you guys are genius' and all, but I'm not so sure about this one…"

"Oh don't be such a stick in the mud!" Lloyd said as he jumped circles around Gino. "The government was skeptical enough about Lancelot and we sure changed their minds about that." He said with a grin.

"But- But- it's- it's TINY!" Gino said, still shocked by disbelief.

"Good observation, Gino!" Lloyd said. "This unit has only 12.5% the mass of our latest Lancelot Conquista, but has the same energy readings."

"Right." Cecile added. "Instead of trying to make the units larger and more powerful like what we tried in the eighth and ninth generation models, we decided to make the Knightmare Frames faster, more accurate and efficient."

"Units from the ninth generation were remarkably powerful, but their energy fillers ran out within seven minutes of activation because they used up too much power." Lloyd explained.

"But this thing…" Gino said. "It's more like a suit than a knightmare!"

The unit standing in front of Gino was the strangest, yet most awesome and deadly thing he had ever seen. It was only 2.5 meters tall (8'2") painted in a metallic black with some smaller parts in gold. The frame had more human-like proportions than the larger models, but still with the reminiscing visual design as the Lancelot's head, arm pieces, and chest plate. It had a more sleek, compact, efficient look to it though, and from far away it might actually look like a human.

"Like what you see?" Lloyd asked eagerly.

"Let's do this." Gino said.

"Well we made improvements to the Core Luminous, so there are now five smaller cores scattered through the frame." Cecile said. "Each one is responsible for powering a different region of the suit, the head and chest, left arm, right arm, left leg, and right leg."

"I gotcha." Gino said as the rear calves of the Frame opened up, allowing him to step into the suit.

"The suit's outer hull has been fitted with a large scale radiant wave surging system. Every part of your suit will have the same effects as the Guren's right arm." Lloyd said. "Courtesy of Rakshata herself."

"Anyway, the suit is still significantly larger than you so we were able to put the flight and fight controls in the forearms, so you'll be able to pilot with your hands as usual." Cecile said.

"Oh yeah and be sure to try out the new chest mounted Hadron Cannon. It's not as strong as the Mordrid's gun, but it's much more energy efficient." Lloyd added.

"Alright, if you don't have any questions, we'll get this started. I'll be monitoring the Odin's sensors and physical condition." Cecile said.

"I'm ready." Gino replied as he clutched the controls.

"Advanced Weapon T01-Odin now launching!"

With that, the cores lumini sparked to life and catapulted the Odin into the sky. The float unit quickly took form and within seconds, sending the Odin supersonic.

"Holy shit this thing is fast!" Gino yelled, barely able to control his trajectory.

"This unit can provide the same amount of thrusting force as seventh generation knightmares, but is one eighth the weight, so it can actually travel about three times as fast."

"Holy shit, you weren't joking about this, were you!" Gino said, trying to maintain control of the Odin's now 3000 mph.

"Don't fly too quickly now though, your current 46% velocity is good enough for preliminary testing."

"You've got to be joking me, this is 46%!"

It was then that Gino received a message from Lady Nunnally.

"Good day your majesty, this is your Knight of Three speaking." Gino said.

"Gino, some small time rebels have gotten hold of seventh generation knightmares in the Chinese Federation, I need you to go neutralize them." Nunnally said. "I thought that since you were in the area you could go handle them. There are ten of them, so be careful!"

"Fear not, your Highness, I'll get it done." He said before the transmission was cut. "Cecile, did you catch all of that?"

"I did. Technically we're not supposed to engage hostiles until the third test, but you're a knight of the round, so we'll let it slip." She replied. "If you head west at your current speed, you should intercept the terrorists in ten minutes."

"Roger that." Gino said.

"By the way, Gino, you've got six slash harkens, two on the forearms, two on the legs, and one on each shoulder. Also, you've got the hadron cannon, and some heat seeking rockets. Oh, and don't forget to deploy the Blaze Luminous when you're taking fire."

Within ten minutes, Gino saw smoke rising from a Chinese city. "Look, Cecile, the carnage. It's gotta be them."

"Gino, hostile slash-harken set for intercept trajectory, negative 65 horizontal by 45 lateral! Employ evasive maneuvers!"

"Oh shit!" Gino yelled as he conducted a left barrel roll as the slash harken whipped past him in a narrow miss at a blinding speed. He could feel its powerful draft roar over his armor and down to the city below. The harken was followed by a barrage of projectile fire pinging off the Odin's Titanium enforced steel alloy.

"Watch out, Gefjun missiles!" Cecile shrieked as a Gefjun net began forming around the Odin. "You have to get out of there before they lock on to you!"

"Don't worry; they won't make it in time." Gino said with a grin. He accelerated toward the hostile unit, thrusters at 85% power.

"Activate full body radiant wave surger!" The enemy knightmare didn't even have time to react to the Odin's blinding speed before getting hit in the face by a forceful punch. "Hell yeah!" Gino yelled in euphoria as the enemy unit bubbled and exploded by the radiant surge. The missiles quickly adjusted trajectories like mad search dogs, and were once again hot on the Odin's tracks.

"Watch out, here come the rest of them!" Cecile said as nine Knightmare Frames began closing on his positions. "But you need to shake those missiles first!"

"Cecile, there's too many; I can't shake them!" Gino said in frustration. "Doesn't this thing have some kind of evasion system?"

"Yes, it's called speed." Cecile said. "You've got to accelerate to lose them, but be warned, flying at over 75% maximum velocity will drain the energy filler very quickly."

"Well it looks like I don't have much of a choice." Gino said as he floored the throttle. "Here we go!" The sky was filled with a monstrous roar as the Odin's prime thrusters blasted the unit to five thousand miles per hour.

"Gino, what's your energy filler at?" Cecile asked in concern.

"78%, but I think I've lost them, so I'll sl-" Gino was interrupted by massive shockwave which was heating up the interior of the Odin rapidly.

"Gino, status report!"

"Damn it, I got hit by a Hadron Cannon!" Gino said as he tried to regain his composure. "The hull got breached and I think the energy filler is leaking, I only have 61% power left. I'm just going to have to wipe them out with the radiant wave surger and hope my power doesn't run out before then."

"No, you can't!" Cecile said in panic. "If your hull is breached, the radiant waves will short out and you'll cook yourself alive!"

"What the hell do I do then!" Gino said as the enemy began closing on his position. "I'm losing velocity and my filler is at 54%"

"Gino, you need to slow down." Cecile ordered. "Save as much of your power as you can; you're going to have to fight these guys using the conventional weapon systems so your energy filler doesn't die out."

"Alright." Gino said as he took a deep breath. "How long do you think the filler will last for?"

"Don't think about that for now. You're a Knight of the Round, you can do this!" Cecile said.

"Yeah, you're right." Gino said with a grin as he turned the Odin around to face his pursuers. "Nine targets spotted, six targeted. Targets locked, firing slash-harkens!" Six deadly predators whipped through the sky racing toward their targets, and though the enemy Knightmares attempted to evade the attacks, the advanced targeting system implemented into Odin guided the harkens inexorably toward their targets. "Alright Cecile, only three left."

"Incoming fire. It'll take more energy to run away than it will to block." Cecile advised. "Employ Blaze Luminous."

"Employing Blaze Luminous!" Gino yelled. Suddenly the Odin was surrounded by a green crystalline shielding system that repelled the incoming fire.

"Gino, what's the energy filler at?"

"37%." He replied.

"Then you need to finish this quickly. Go ahead and use the Hadron Cannon. We designed it to be energy efficient, so you should be fine for a couple minutes."

"Alright let's try this baby out!" Gino said as he turned on the chest mounted Hadron Cannon to full blast. In the first sweep, he landed hits on two of the three remaining enemies. As they fell into the city below, Gino realized that the final unit was the one that had shot him with its own hadron cannon earlier.

"Power at 29%, Cecile, the Knightmare is going to die out soon!" Gino said as the hostile unit fired its cannon again. Gino went through a two-and-a-half left barrel roll while decelerating to avoid the blast. The hostile swung around and fired a barrage of rockets, which Gino blocked with the Blaze Luminous.

"Gino, I've analyzed the unit you're facing. It's a prototype based off of the Guren Mk-II. If these notes are right, it's a heavy-armored cavalry class Knightmare with heavy weaponry, but the armor is weak on its lower body, so aim for that!"

"Power at 22%. I guess it's now or never!" Gino yelled as he lowered his altitude prepared to fire the Hadron Cannon at the enemy's lower body.

The two Knightmares fired their cannons simultaneously, filling the sky with a blood-red light.

"Shit, power at 16%, Cecile, I'm redirecting all power to the cannon!"

"No, Gino, the suit might not be able to handle that much st-" Gino flipped a switch, and the Odin's heads up display, lights, and radio shut off, all to provide power for the Hadron Cannon. Gino's beam overtook the enemy's cannon, but to his dismay, the other unit had enough armor to withstand the attack.

"Just don't know when to quit, do you!" Gino muttered as he turned all systems back on and fired all six slash harkens. Despite all its armor, the enemy unit caved into the force of the six harkens after taking so much damage from the Odin's hadron.

"Gino, Gino!" Cecile yelled in panic. "Are you alright!"

"No!" Gino yelled seconds later when he realized that his energy filler no longer had enough voltage to power his float unit. "I HATE YOU LLOYD!"

The army's special task force recovered the Odin and its pilot immediately after transmitting that message. Gino would later be promoted to Knight of One after demonstrating his aptitude with the new technology Odin in a science convention with Lloyd Asplund and Cecile Croomy.

Fin.


End file.
